The Approval Matrix: Week of December 5, 2005

PipelineWill Ferrell, Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite), Will Arnett (Arrested Development), and Amy Poehler (SNL) will all star in Blades of Glory, a figure-skating comedy about cutthroat ice dancers. . . . Tony winner Phylicia Rashad will star in a musical version of Federico García Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba, which will hit Broadway in March; two-time Tony nominee Daphne Rubin-Vega has also taken a role. . . . Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler have signed on to star in Sony’s Reign O’er Me, about a man dealing with the loss of his family on September 11 who finds peace after reconnecting with an old friend. . . . CBS announced its midseason replacements, which include Love Monkey, a TV adaptation of the lad-lit novel, and a sitcom currently titled The Jenna Elfman Show. . . . Comedian Denis Leary has two new projects in development: a reality program with ABC about Caroline Hirsch (the owner of Carolines on Broadway) and Fugly, a Comedy Central series about a man who’s coming to terms with his own childhood as an ugly kid.